“Admit One Lost Sheep”
“Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.
Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home.
Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Luke 15:3-7
Intro: Luke 15 follows sooner after Jesus tells the story about a great Banquet,
in which the “poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind” replace the anticipated guest at a great feast.
Luke continues to set out one of the most challenging parts of Jesus' ministry.
Jesus was friendly and compassionate with sinners.
One versions calls them “notorious sinners”
Infamous, well known sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.
This was a subject of much debate among the Levites.
This made the Pharisees and teachers of the law complain
that he was associating with such despicable people…, even eating with them.
Then the passage shifts quickly into Jesus teaching the parable of the “lost sheep.”
We may be able to understand a God who would forgive sinners who come to him for mercy.
But a God who tenderly searches for sinners
and then joyfully forgives them is an extraordinary love!
We sometimes stumble over the word sinner, especially when we are in a church of well educated Christians.
We often raise the question "Aren't we all sinners?"
Yes, indeed after infancy our innocence quickly vanishes
and we stand in need of rescue and salvation of the cross.
In Luke's world, people’s sin becomes so routine and normal that they are sinners in need of repentance.
But yet others do not.
We must take a deeper look at what Jesus says in verse 7.
Jesus makes a clear distinguishes between sinners who repent
and "the righteous who have no need of repentance."
Here may be the most difficult struggle of all.
We must struggle with that distinction.
Which sheep are you?
One of the 99 or the one that is lost?
Jesus invites us into the story when he says,
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.”
Then Jesus makes a second point that seems out of place.
When the one lost is found there are rich and extravagant celebrations.
In the ancient world, "rejoicing" implies eating.
Would a shepherd really throw a party over finding one lost sheep?
If you have ten coins and lost one.
You search the whole house
Sweeping every nook and cranny until you find it.
When you have found the one that was lost you call your friends and neighbors to rejoice with you.
The whole neighborhood, the whole community is celebrating and rejoicing.
Jesus asks, "Which one of you" does not do the same?
Jesus implies in the parable of the father with two sons.
We would do the same thing.
When a son or daughter is lost but then is found.
When a spouse or loved one is unsaved but makes a profession of faith.
When a neighbor or even a stranger that we have never met becomes a Christian we all rejoice in worship.
God has prepared your heaven.
One of these days, we are going to a place where tears are wiped away.
Disease will reign no more.
One of these days, our sins and sorrows will be put behind us.
Our temptations to roam will be no more.
One of these days, justice will prevail.
Poverty and hunger will end.
The wicked will be separated like sheep from the goats.
One of these days we will find ourselves finally home.
Home in heaven that God has prepared for us.
Home with Christ who died on the cross to save us.
Home with the Holy Spirit who has empowered us to live like we ought to live.
So the Bible says, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents
than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
What a day of rejoicing that will be.
Let the party begin.
After all…, Isn’t that the definition of worship.
Let the rejoicing never end!
Come join the Celebration!
All of this has been made possible because God is concerned enough to come and search for you.
The cross and the resurrected Christ offers our ticket to heaven.
Other religions are spelled “D-O”
because they teach that people have to DO a bunch of religious rituals to try to please God.
But Christianity is spelled “D-O-N-E” because Christ has DONE it all on the cross
— and we just need to receive Him.
It really is that simple.
It seem unbelievable.
That’s why it is a miracle.
Welcome home by GRACE. UNDESERVED GRACE.
Romans 10:9 “If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart
that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved.”
Jesus did more than provide help to deal with our stress related to our daily lives.
He delivers from sin.
He offers more than making life easy or giving us every desire of our heart.
He redeems us for eternity.
Jesus did more than teach positive thinking, goal setting, and achieving success.
He offers a one way ticket for a trip to paradise.
You know in a lot of places in our world they use tickets for all kinds of things.
Raffles, lotteries, tickets to get on rides at the county fair.
You have to hand over your ticket to receive your reward or to get on the ride.
By the way the Greek word is: paradido¯mi
Which means: to give into the hands (of another) to hand it over.
Everyone say: paradido¯mi
So when you leave church today and you are sitting around the lunch table
and the people from the other churches in town come in and ask you how was your church today.
So that you they want think your church is shallow and you never learn anything important.
You can say oh, it was great we learned a new Greek word paradido¯mi
I want you to practice paradido¯mi so you can impress your friends with your new found knowledge of Greek.
You don’t even have to know how to pronounce it
Just say it.
They don’t know how to pronounce either.
But what it means is “hand it over.”
You can say, “We talked about paradido¯mi our ticket admitting us into heaven.”
The late Johnny Cash said of his early life,
“I used drugs to escape and they worked pretty well when I was younger,
but they devastated me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I couldn’t communicate with God.
There is no place more lonely on earth that one could be.”
Imagine feeling that lost.
Like sheep, people nibble their way lost.
Busyness binds us; we are busy people.
We wear our busyness as a badge of importance and honor.
We have things to do, places to go.
We are not bad people; we just not good at setting priorities…,
so we nibble here and wander there,
drawn by grass that looks greener on the other side,
driven by work that we think we can finish in just one more hour,
controlled by more and more activity.
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love. (1758)
Everyone here has felt that desire to take a trip to a distant land.
To taste life and like glutton.
We are lost because we nibble our way away from the flock like sheep out in pasture.
HOW ARE PEOPLE FOUND?
That is what these stories are about.
The good shepherd searches for the one lost sheep until he finds it.
There are ninety and nine safe in the fold, but there is one that is lost.
Percentage-wise they are doing very well.
If I could get ninety-nine percent of the membership of this church,
we would not have room to put them on Sunday morning.
We would say ninety-nine percent is extremely good,
but God does not work by percentages.
He works by name,
He works by individuals,
The result is a search and rescue mission.
Simply stated the Church must recover its search and rescue mission.
We must start caring for lost people.
That is our mission.
I wish for every board meeting we hold.
We would spend the same amount of time out in the community working the streets, searching the highways and hedges for the lost sinner.
I wish for every hour of charity work you give
You would spend the same amount of time seeking to bring in the lost to church where they might hear a sermon on salvation.
If we become concerned for the lost we will spend more time outside the church inviting people
and less time inside the church sitting.
Do you have good friends who are unbelievers?
You are the volunteers we need for this mission.
Jesus was about a search and rescue mission.
He went to hunt for the one that was lost.
If we are not careful we will love dwelling the house of the Lord more than we love searching for the lost.
We Can Sit and Wait for them to come here.
How is that working?
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now I’m found;
T’was blind but now I see.
Are you lost today?
It was Grace dressed like shame.
It was Triumph dressed like trouble.
It was Salvation dressed like crucifixion.
When Jesus died, and the bible says in
John 19:30 “Jesus said, it is finished, With that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
Which was not the cry of death but the cry of victory.
With that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
And gave up his spirit is how we say it in English.
But the bible wasn’t written in English.
In fact this part of the bible was written in Greek.
There is a Greek word that John used in the 19:30 that we translated “gave up.”
That really doesn’t mean “gave up.”
Do you know what the Greek word is? : paradido¯mi
You thought I was just randomly telling that in the story about handing over your ticket to at the movie theater.
Judas to Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin to Pilot
Pilot to Herod
And Herod handed Jesus over to be crucified.
When Jesus got ready to die guess what he did with his spirit. : paradido¯mi
He handed it over.
Nobody took his life.
He gave it.
Same word to describe the way Judas handed Jesus over is the
Same word used to describe the way Jesus handed himself over.
What am I saying is, Jesus life wasn’t lost.
He had it in his hands all along.
He didn’t have his life taken from him.
It was in his hands all the time.
Jesus gave his ticket
All I need is receive that ticket today.
Turn to the person sitting beside you and ask them, “Have you got your ticket?”
This is a ticket to salvation.
Think about what it means to be lost in terms of being a non-Christian.
You are walking in the wrong direction.
You are not going in the direction of your heaven destination. (At least if you are you don’t know it)
You are walking away from the promise
You are going in the wrong direction.
The number one reason people give for dropping out of church is that they just got out of the habit.
I’ll tell you how to simplify your weekends.
Stop making church a choice and start making it a habit.
If you make a habit of doing it, then it gets a lot easier. End the hassle of “Will we?” or “Won’t we?”
Just form the good habit of coming where the spiritual food is served.
May I leave you with two questions?
How much do you care about lost people?
What are you going to do about it?
